Dental nurse Laura Marshall’s partner denies claim he ‘killed her in a rage’

The inquest into the death of Ms Marshall has heard a statement she gave to police in the weeks before her death, describing an alleged assault by Gary O’Dowd where she claims he lifted her off the ground by her neck and head-butted her.

Ms Marshall’s bruised body was found partially submerged in bath water at her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, on April 3 2016.

Her partner Mr O’Dowd was initially charged with her murder, but the charge was withdrawn by prosecutors two years later.

Coroner Louisa Fee is now presiding over an inquest for the 31-year-old.

The inquest has already heard that pathology experts differ on the cause of death.

It has also heard evidence that Ms Marshall had told a family member that Mr O’Dowd had threatened to kill her, and had said he subjected her to regular beatings.

Giving evidence to the inquest on Tuesday, Mr O’Dowd said that he did not know how the dental nurse died, but said they had had a “volatile” relationship.

When Mr O’Dowd began his evidence on Wednesday, coroner Ms Fee repeated her advice from the previous day – that he did not have to answer any question which might incriminate himself under Rule Nine of the Northern Ireland Coroners Rules.

Andrew Moriarty, the barrister representing Ms Marshall’s family, asked Mr O’Dowd if he recalled Ms Marshall talking about receiving money from America, which he said he did.

He said it was “not a whole lot I think she got money sent over one time and she bought a car and ended up wrecking it and no insurance or anything”.

Mr Moriarty asked if Mr O’Dowd was “determined to besmirch Laura even in death”, to which he replied: “No, I’m not, no.”

He said he “couldn’t stop” Ms Marshall going to America “if she wanted to go”.

Asked if he had “a sense she was slipping away from you”, he replied: “No.”

Later the barrister read a statement from a friend of Ms Marshall’s where she said: “I asked how she and Gary were, at which point Laura burst into tears.

“She said they’d broken up the night before. I hugged her and when I did so, she said ‘ouch’.”

The friend said Ms Marshall told her Mr O’Dowd had “attacked her the night before”.

Mr Moriarty said a “concerned friend goes to give her a hug and she says ‘ouch’”. The lawyer asked Mr O’Dowd if he believed Ms Marshall had been “feigning that ‘ouch’”, to which he replied: “I know nothing about it.”

The barrister then said the friend outlined a phone call between herself and Ms Marshall where she was told “Gary had strangled her” and “Laura also said that she regretted phoning the police and she hid Gary in her bedroom when the police had come for her”.

Her friend said: “Laura said that she still loved Gary, which I think was why she regretted phoning the police.

“I said to Laura ‘don’t let me get a phone call that Gary has killed you. You need to get away’. She said it wouldn’t come to that.”

Mr Moriarty asked Mr O’Dowd: “Did it come to that?”

“No definitely not, and Rule 9 as well,” he said.

The barrister questioned Mr O’Dowd about a number of aspects of Ms Marshall’s life in the months prior to her death, including going to a family wedding without him and reporting him to police, in addition to having money sent from America.

“Is it not an abundantly clear picture that she was slipping away and you didn’t like it?” he asked.

“I didn’t want to go to America, I was sitting up in Lurgan and I had my family nearby,” Mr O’Dowd said.

Mr Moriarty asked: “Did you have a clear sense that she was slipping away?”

Mr O’Dowd said: “Definitely not.”

“Did that drive you into a rage?” the barrister asked.

Mr O’Dowd said: “Definitely not.”

The inquest has previously heard that in the weeks before Ms Marshall died, Mr O’Dowd had been charged with assault and threats to kill, but that Ms Marshall had decided she wanted to drop the charges.

Mr Moriarty said he would finish his questioning with Ms Marshall’s “own words”, reading from her statement to police on March 24 2016, describing an alleged attack by Mr O’Dowd.

She said she had been at home with Mr O’Dowd and he was angry, and he had “lifted me off the ground using both his hands around my neck”.

She said she was “struggling to breath and almost passed out” when he let go and then “hit me with force”.

Ms Marshall said in the statement that he “then tried to make it up to me and asked if we can have civilised conversation, then got angry again”, before he “then head-butted me to the forehead. He said to me ‘I will kill you, I will stab you, I will put a knife through your temple’”.

She described how Mr O’Dowd “doesn’t let” her see friends and family.

“He beats me on a daily basis. In the past he has put me in the Royal Hospital for a month when he poured boiling water over me”, her statement read.

Mr Moriarty put it to Mr O’Dowd that Ms Marshall’s statement was a “voice from the grave that tells everyone that you have a violent temper and that you’re manipulative”.

Mr O’Dowd said: “The police came down, examined her, she said she was head-butted and punched. Police came down and examined her and there wasn’t a mark on her.”

Mr Moriarty said Ms Marshall’s statement “tells everyone that you are a woman beater”.

Mr O’Dowd said: “That’s your point of view. I don’t accept that.”

The barrister said Ms Marshall’s statement showed “before Laura died, that you were in a rage and you ultimately killed her in a rage”.

Mr O’Dowd replied: “Rule Nine.”

The inquest was read a statement from friend Collette McCallion, who said Ms Marshall told her, “Gary had hit her, pulled her hair out and tired to strangle her with his hands” and said it was the “same story every week they were fighting a lot”.

Ms McCallion said: “When I first heard Laura was dead I was nearly sick because she used to say to me she would get taken out in a bodybag.”

A statement was also read from a PSNI detective outlining a litany of domestic incidents police had attended involving the couple, a number of which described Ms Marshall refusing to show police injuries and rejecting advice not to return to living with Mr O’Dowd.

These included the boiling water incident where Ms Marshall refused to allow her injuries to be photographed and expressed a “wish for Gary O’Dowd to be released because she did not wish him to leave her”.

Another was where Ms Marshall reported that Mr O’Dowd had made threats to kill her, “grabbed her by the throat and hair and dragged her through different rooms” of their flat.